The win-loss records of the various minor league teams aren’t quite in the same refuse bin as pitcher win-loss records, but, like those ones, you can only glean so much information.
That said, in the aggregate, it tends to be the case that good organizations frequently produce winning minor league clubs. The winning is *sometimes* suggestive of latent talent that scouting and stats aren’t picking up, of good coaching and instruction, and of good intangibles/makeup (again, in the aggregate).
So long as you don’t take it too far, it’s interesting to look at.
To that end, Baseball America collected the total winning percentages for all 30 organizations, and put them in order.
Despite a perceived significant absence of prospect talent, the Cubs’ organization wound up tied with the Brewers for 11th, with a .504 winning percentage.
The vaunted Yankees system came in up top at .602, followed by the Twins, Dodgers, and Cardinals. Interestingly, the team at the very bottom is the White Sox (.438), who are among the few systems that rival the Yankees and Braves in the eyes of prospectors. All else equal, I’m sure they’d rather their young prospects were experiencing a little more winning.
In any case, it’s just a little something to enjoy pondering as we think about the direction of the Cubs’ farm system heading into next year. The bulk of the talent is unquestionably concentrated at the lowest levels (and it’s probably no coincidence that they won the Arizona Rookie League, and were runners up in the short-season Low-A Northwest League).
There are so many talented youngsters who could emerge as top prospects next year – they’re at that point – but there isn’t a vast collection of *OBVIOUS* top 100 types like there has been in recent years. In fact, it’s possible that the Cubs could head into 2018 without any consensus top 100 prospects for the first time in … uh … a long time. (I tend to think Adbert Alzolay will be up there, though, when all the offseason input is in place.) But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Cubs’ system was absolutely loaded with 101 to 200 type prospects. And maybe the winning percentage in 2017 was a subtle hint at that.